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Monday, March 16, 2026
TopicBudget 2020

Topic: Budget 2020

FM Sitharaman budgets Rs 1.67 lakh crore of extra expenditure, mostly for Covid package

This expenditure includes Rs 40,000 crore towards enhanced expenditure under MNREGA. The first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants includes 54 Grants and 1 Appropriations.

Budget 2020 is now useless. Modi govt must present a new one

Covid has ensured Modi govt won’t meet 20% growth in tax collection target. That would be a terrible assumption to make in a pandemic-hit economy.

Incentives and infrastructure — what govt can do to boost data centres in India

The Centre plans to make India a $1 trillion digital economy by 2025, which will attract countries wanting to set up data centres in India.

Relief for India’s overseas students, govt cuts 5% ‘tax at source’ Budget proposal to 0.5%

Among amendments to the Finance Bill moved by Nirmala Sitharaman, the govt has clarified that NRIs will only be taxed on income they earn in India.

Facing a fiscal crisis for long, Modi govt now seems to be pushing states into a crisis too

Either Modi govt is expecting a revenue windfall that will be passed on to states, or states will be squeezed even further. My guess is it will be the latter.

How the LIC mega IPO can also help reform India’s larger financial sector

If done right, IPO can bring transparency & efficiency to LIC, ensure govt doesn’t force it to buy weak PSUs, and improve resource allocation in the economy.

Sanjaya Baru on altered India-US relations, Ruchir Sharma & Sandipan Deb go to the Oscars

Today’s political, economic & strategic punditry from Sanjaya Baru, Ashok Gulati, Ruchir Sharma, Tamal Bandopadhyay, Prabha Kotiswaran & many others.

BMC’s ‘blatant oversight’ that has Raj Thackeray’s MNS riled up

Pre-Truth — snappy, witty and significant snippets from the world of politics and government.

To meet fiscal deficit target, Sitharaman’s Budget leaves out some expenditure

Govt has provided Rs 30,000 cr as against Rs 74,340 cr proposed by 15th finance commission, towards revenue deficit grants to states & has made no allocation for bank recapitalisation.  

AAP victory trumps hyper-nationalism, says Express & governance new nationalism, says TOI

Santosh Desai, Satish Deshpande, Suhas Palshikar on AAP's landslide victory in Delhi and Shankar Acharya, Nirvikar Singh on Budget 2020.

On Camera

Gulf conflict pushes Dubai diamond traders to eye Surat for rough stone auctions. But there are hurdles

Industry leaders say India’s complicated customs process and GST levies are deterrents for traders to come to Surat for auctions.

Supreme Leader Mojtaba, the man Iran must keep alive & the secret force ‘tasked with it’—all about NOPO

The Nirouyeh Vijeh Pasdaran Velayat, or NOPO, was the only force Ali Khamenei trusted.It was founded in 1991 and is more feared than the Revolutionary Guards.

Peaceful power transfers followed uprisings in India’s neighbourhood. It’s a sign of mature democracies

Rating democracies is a tricky business. I am only using the simple metric of who in the Indian subcontinent has had the most peaceful, stable, normal political transitions and continuity.